


Tipsy Questions

by basicmarvelhoe



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Past Domestic Violence, Tony Angst, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, could be Clint/Tony if you want, not much speech tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 12:10:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17662388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basicmarvelhoe/pseuds/basicmarvelhoe
Summary: It was a simple question. It meant nothing. So what if Tony didn’t answer? It’s fine. Tiberius Stone was a distant memory and it’s not as if he’d ever have to tell his teammates about him, right?





	Tipsy Questions

**Author's Note:**

> okay so the title is shit but i hope you guys enjoy! it’s not that great and a lil rough tbh but i wanted to write something like this bc i don’t think many people have? idk don’t kill me if im wrong

The Avengers had had a rough day. It started out as your ordinary villain of the day, really a nobody and somehow, somehow, he had managed to fuck them over. He plowed into the armour like he was cutting a cake, so easily and simply you’d think he wasn’t even trying.

Not just that, but Clint has taken a hit to the leg and Cap had taken a blow to the gut, and you sure as hell know it had to have been hard to have left a mark on the solider.

As soon as they’d made it back to the tower Tony silently cracked open one of his very old, very nice bourbons and proceeded to pour those able to be affected by something as weak as alcohol (as Thor liked to describe it) a drink.

Clint, Tony and even Natasha were a little tipsy meanwhile Bruce was recovering from his time as the Hulk and Steve began to bandage himself up. Thor seemed to be the only one in a semi-good mood.

Natasha, sensing the air starting to become tinted with awkwardness, started by asking a question. Tony couldn’t even remember what it was, something about first times but the group had jumped eagerly in. They went around storytelling and answering the various questions asked by anyone who could come up with something vaguely worth talking about.

That was until Clint, in his tired, tipsy state, mumbled something about childhood exes. Clint mumbled a story about a girl he met at the circus. Natasha and Steve both passed as Natasha’s time with the Red Room left very little time for romance and Steve’s time as a popsicle did the same. 

Thor began to boast about a fair maiden on Asgard and then, surprising, a young blacksmith called Thomas. Bruce then continued from there, telling the group about a girl in his science class who cheered him up on the darkest of days.

Tony was last.

Tony sat in silence for a fair amount of time, letting their eyes drill holes into his skull. He managed to finally get his lips to murmur, “Pass.” Before taking a long swig of his drink.

In response Clint sat up, blinking at Tony bearily before point a wobbly finger at him and exclaiming, “Not so fast! There’s a story to that! Come on, what? Too embarrassing for Tony Stark?”

At this point Natasha had started to analyse, despite her slightly tipsy state, Tony’s reaction to the question. She could sense his anxiety and his fear. Of what? She wasn’t quite sure yet. She decided to let it go. 

————————

The next morning the Avengers woke up in rougher shape than normal. The drinking after the battle hadn’t been a great idea.

Clint’s brain had immediately gone to Tony’s weird response to his question about exes and so had Natasha’s. Natasha took a slightly more subtle approach to her way of thinking about it though.

As they walked into the kitchen they were greeted with the sight of sed genius. He had big black circles clinging to his face and a mop of static hair. The spies exchanged a quick glance before taking a seat in the kitchen. Steve walked in next, Thor and Bruce closely behind, each of them eyeing the scruffy man carefully.

Steve cheerily said, “So how did everyone sleep?”

A muffled groan came from Tony whereas everyone else responded with happy sounding grunts. Despite being a spy, Clint disliked rich people who thought they were too good for those ‘below them’ which is why he thought he wouldn’t like Tony. When he first met Tony though, he found the man was the exact opposite, he had a heart of gold and wore it on his sleeve. 

He found Tony was insecure despite the masks he put up to hide it and that just like many of the group he had PTSD and panic attacks. He was human. A fact, some of them forgot sometimes.

Despite all this though, Clint didn’t understand why Tony was keeping this from them. Tony never had a problem sharing embarrassing stories before. Clint thought long and hard before coming to the conclusion that if Tony didn’t tell them, it was probably for a damn good reason.

————————

It had been a few months since that conversation. The team was much closer and worked well together. They had become a family, albeit a very dysfunctional family but a family nonetheless. Majority of the group had forgotten about the incident but not Natasha. Or Clint.

It had been stewing deep in the back of their minds for the past few months but it wasn’t a necessary ask and they didn’t want to hurt Tony, who had somehow become the heart and most loved of the group. The glue. What kept them together.

They were all lounging about in the common room when it happened. Jarvis’ usually smooth, soothing voice jumped out the speakers, “Sir, one Tiberius Stone is waiting outside and he seems rather drunk.”

Tony jumped up from where he was lying across Clint and Natasha’s laps and blinked owlishly at the words that had left his AI’s speakers. He sprang up from the couch and ran over to the lift.

“Don’t let him in Jarvis!” Tony’s voice had a panicked edge too it and his anxiety seemed to seep into the air, causing the rest of the team to stare at the panicking man with concern.

Tony’s breathing became harsh and he pressed the elevator button more urgently, “J, why aren’t you bringing the lift up?”

Jarvis’ tone sounded worried as he said, “I believe it would not be benficial for your mental health to be around such a person as Tiberius Stone, Sir.”

Jarvis’ voice turned poisonous as he spat the name and the pure venom in his voice caused Natasha to stare at her friend worriedly.

“Fine! Bring up a live feed, J.” Jarvis hesitated before bringing up the feed. A loud, drunk voice boomed over the speakers as he continued to shout obscenities about Tony.

“You whore! You’re just a good fuck, that’s all you are! I only wanted you for your money.”

Tony felt himself tense up as his teammates became more enraged with this mysterious man. Tony told Jarvis quietly to call security and have his escorted off the premises.

Tony turned to his friends, family really, and stood in silence for a while. “He’s my ex.” He muttered. “His name’s Tiberius Stone, as you’ve probably gathered, and he was my boyfriend. He was great for a while…charming even, our personalities clicked and I was young, even thought he was the one for a while.”

Tony gulped and took a deep breath. “That was until he hit me…the first time it wasn’t so bad, and he was sorry, god he just seemed so goddamn sorry and I fell for it, like an idiot and forgave him.” Clint took his hand and squeezed it for reassurance.

“Fast forward a year later and I was much better at hiding bruises, luckily Ty never hit me in the face unless he was really drunk. I loved him. I know it sounds silly but I did, I just clung to the person he used to be, the person who would bring me a kind of comfort I hadn’t experience before, not from my father or mother. And Rhodey and I weren’t so close at the time either so it was really just him. I remember having this idea that I could change him, that everytime he said he loved me and that he was sorry I would think about how one day he wouldn’t need to say that anymore because I would have changed him.”

His team listened on in silence as he poured out his soul. “He broke my collarbone and wrist on our 2 year anniversary. It wasn’t even then that I realised I needed to get out of there. It was after when I went outside with the expectation of him being there to pick me up with his arms wide open and maybe a bouquet of flowers, sunflowers because he knew they were my favourite. Well he wasn’t. I stood there for a long time, and you know what got me to leave? The fact that I wanted someone who was going to drive me home from the hospital. In the end, it was the loneliness that made me leave. Pretty pathetic, huh?”

Tony stood there until he felt a meaty hand clutch his shoulder. He looked up and saw Thor, and Clint, Natasha, Bruce and Steve all gather around him. Bringing him into a giant group hug. Letting the warmth of not just their bodies but their love filter through to his core. Tony revelled in it. He felt himself slowly start to let go of the small part of pain left as he listened to multiple voices telling him how much they love him, and how proud they are of him that he got out of there and how they’re so glad he’s okay. 

Tony went to sleep that night feeling more loved and accepted than he had in a long long time. And if one Tiberius Stone didn’t sleep or wake up ever again because of two mysterious spy-like strangers? Well, they were just being good samaritans, after all you have to take out the trash, don’t you?

**Author's Note:**

> hope you guys liked it? sorry if there are some spelling mistakes im super tired and i kinda wrote this instead of revising for maths oops


End file.
